Dissimulation
by Archaon
Summary: -One Shot- Sonic and Tails stop Eggman once more. Everything seems normal but it’s not. Robotnik suspects, Amy worries and Tails knows but tells no one. Darkish.


**Dissimulation**

**A Sonic the Hedgehog One-shot**

**By Archaon**

**-x-x-**

A mechanical clawed appendage swiped at him as he tried to hit the vulnerable power core and he was smacked aside like a tennis ball. Instead of groaning in pain like most others would, he landed with a laugh. His Chaos-augmented spin-dash had protected him fully.

"Come on, egglard. Stop making this so boring. I have had paper cuts that hurt more", quipped Sonic, mockingly shaking his head.

Robotnik's snarl echoed through unseen speakers. "Silence rodent. You have yet to see my new machine's power."

The blue blur rolled his eyes. "Yada, yada, super robot, yada, yada, you will crush me, yada, yada, I'm inferior. Seriously, how many years have we been doing this?"

Tails sighed, landing next to the hedgehog and regarding Eggman's latest menace. It was basically a giant, springy spider mech, only with thrice as many legs and complementing weapons. The two-tailed fox knew there was no way the doctor could be manually controlling that many appendages. Most of them were on autopilot and thus dumb as freshly made bricks.

"Let's get this over with, Sonic", grumbled Tails mirthlessly. "He'll be expecting you from below and me from above. Let do the opposite", he proposed, his voice low.

Sonic smirked. "Sure thing bro. Just give me a boost", he replied in the same volume.

Tails nodded, retrieving a power ring from his hyperspace wrist container and giving another one to Sonic. They both crashed them in their hands, feeling the familiar power intensifying in their bodies. They both glanced at each other, Sonic eager, Tails solemn.

Robotnik was just about to attack when they exploded in motion. Tails grabbed Sonic's arm and they both jumped like jacks from a box. As soon as they reached the apex of their leap, Tails' tails took them even higher. A second later, the flying vulpine had tossed his adopted brother above the spider mech, using the momentum to return himself to the ground just as fast.

Both Mobians curled into balls, spinning faster than normal eyes could register and attacking at the same instant. Tails crashed into one of the mech's supporting legs, then ricocheted to another and back again. The Chaos energies flowing inside him were enough to dent and possibly sever the appendages, but his true intend was to keep the robot off balance and its controller occupied.

Then Sonic attacked, falling and weaving through the disoriented robotic limbs with speed far superior to what gravity would provide. He struck true at the power core, its shielding enduring and throwing him back. Hardly deterred, he attacked again and again rapidly, spamming his physics-defying Homing Attack and hitting the same precise point. The shield glowed, wavered, then finally collapsed, the cobalt hero smashing cleanly through the mech's power source, supercharged quills tearing mercilessly, and exiting from the other side.

Robotnik escaped just before his latest robot disintegrated in apocalyptic-class fire and turned to glare at the dynamic duo that had defeated him again, one very smug, the other very pensive. "Next time hedgehog!" he bellowed. "One of these days I will finally get lucky!"

Flying away from the scene, the Eggman mentally went through the battle again. "It doesn't make sense", he muttered. "Sonic has been growing stronger and stronger at accelerated rates. Two years ago, he wouldn't have been able to break that shield without at least two emeralds. I expected him to improve, but never so fast. I must be missing something..."

Despite his genius, Robotnik had never been particularly empathic. Even though he had noticed Tails was far more serious and depressed than normal, he had dismissed it as inconsequential, never making a connection between the hedgehog's power up and the fox's weird mood.

**-x-x-**

Tails' Tornado 6 landed before his workshop, stopping right on a hidden elevator that promptly descended. As soon it reached the fox's underground hangar, its two passengers leaped out. Sonic stretched a bit while yawning.

"Nice little adventure, but Ro-butt-nik needs some new ideas. Is it just me, or are his robots getting lamer and lamer every time?"

Tails refrained from looking at him. "Perhaps you are getting stronger", he offered, successfully keeping most of his guilt out of his voice.

Before they could say anything else, though, an alarm sounded from one of the many computer terminals around them. "Rose Alert! Rose Alert!" demanded a computerized voice.

Sonic gulped. "What now?" he asked apprehensively.

The fox shook his head. "You'll stay here and I'll get rid of her. She doesn't even know about this place. Just don't touch anything", he added, ignoring Sonic's eyeroll.

Tails headed for a ladder, one that led him right in his house's kitchen via a hatch hidden under his fridge. After he emerged, the appliance smoothly descended from its ceiling perch, neatly concealing the entrance to the lower level.

He was just in time, too, as a very determined and very pink hedgehog burst into his kitchen, apparently skipping all propriety, including knocking.

"Where is he?" she demanded, her hand twitching and ready to materialize a hammer.

"Hello to you, too, Amy", replied the fox, visibly not amused, both of his tails rigid behind him.

"Whatever", responded the slightly older female. "Where is Sonic?" When Tails merely shrugged, she glared at him. "I know you busted Eggman together today. It's all over the news."

"That's some hard working reporters", groused the fox, his voice heavy with sarcasm. When Amy's glare intensified, he sighed. "I have no idea where Sonic is. As soon as we touched down, he grabbed a couple of chilly dogs from the fridge, heated them and ran off while munching." He couldn't help but feel astonished at how fast he had learned to lie competently.

Amy Rose critically searched his face for deception and, finding none, she collapsed on a chair. "I... I don't know what's wrong with me", she sobbed. "In the last year, I have only talked to him twice and that only briefly. I can't even tell when he is around anymore. I can't feel him, Tails! It's like our love just... just."

As she completely lost it and placed her hands on her face, Tails patted her on the back, very careful to wipe his own tears before she could see them.

**-x-x-**

Tails returned to his underground workshop, only to find the blue hedgehog ready to doze off. "Did she leave?" He asked anxiously. "I'm not sure why, but I really don't want to see her these days."

The younger Mobian sighed. "Perhaps you two just need some time apart. It's not like you hate her."

Sonic nodded. "Right. Well then, I think I'll snatch a chill dog then juice. Man, I can't remember the last time I ate..."

"Sonic", replied the fox, stopping said hedgehog in his tracks.

"What's wrong, little buddy?" inquired the other concerned. Tails' voice had been thick with sorrow.

"Hypothetically speaking, would you lie to the whole world to keep them safe?" he asked out of the blue.

The azure blur blinked at that. "That's a bit sudden, but yes", he replied. "Most truths do not worth a life. Now, what's this all about?" he teased after the serious moment.

The prodigious fox sighed again. "Deactivate main personality", he ordered firmly.

The result was instantaneous. Sonic's eyes glazed and it stood very still and very rigid, so unlike His hyperactive habits. "Main personality deactivated", it intoned in a very flat voice.

Tails' voice was almost relieved. "T-6000, return to your station and power down", he requested.

Without a word, the hedgehog walked inside a glass cubicle, stopped in the middle, and shut down, just as four manipulators, attached on the cubicle's walls, caught it and kept it erect. Another mechanical arm moved behind it, attaching a cable at a port hidden at the base of its skull.

Tails took a deep breath and decided he needed lots of fresh air. Normally he was really at ease around machinery, but not this time. Minutes later he was racing at full speed along the Mystic Ruins area, tails violently beating the air. He stopped close to the edge of a cliff, right under the shade of a large tree. The view was pretty nice, mountains at one side, the seemingly endless ocean at the other.

"I did it again today, you know", he spoke. "I kicked his ass again. My replica is faster and stronger and tougher. It can use power rings, grow stronger, turn super and even talk the good talk."

He plucked a nearby daisy and placed it on the smooth stone before him. He would have scoffed at anything fancier. "It has fooled most people, you know, and even those that are not convinced, never really suspect."

The two-tailed fox had started crying silently.

"Would you be angry at me? Am I stopping you from resting? Or are you laughing your ass off at how I'm tricking everyone? I bet you'd like to race it, even if you'd lose."

Wiping his eyes, Tails turned around. "It's all that, but it's not you, Sonic. Robotnik did get lucky after all. It's up to me to make sure he never learns so."

The fox walked away from the cliff and away from the tombstone underneath the tree. None other ever went there, but even if they did, they'd probably never decipher the tombstone's meaning.

'Here lies Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog, friend, brother, savior. Let him be unknown so that his legacy never fades.'

**-x-x-**

**The End**

That's pretty depressing for my standards. I'm usually better at humor, but I hope my drama was good enough. This one-shot is my first try in the Sonic category. You could say I'm scouting the waters, getting a feel of the characters while debating whether to start a multi-chaptered story here.

I know 'Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog' is Sonic's name only in the Archie continuity, but I prefer it over, say, Nikky Palouzer...

Remember to review folks. It feels nice.


End file.
